How
many books have been authored by Donald Trump? The answer: a steady
stream totaling a whopping 17 -- more than enough to keep a full-time
writer fully occupied without all of Mr. Trump's other activities. The
word 'writer' of course is key, for Mr. Trump has not actually written
any of them. He hires a ghost writer and simply pens his name to the
finished product.

It's the same with all 'his' hotels around the world. He has simply sold his name to local owners.

This
week he announced that an armada headed by the carrier USS Carl Vinson
was headed towards North Korea to show he meant business. Problem: It
was off the coast of Indonesia sailing in the opposite direction for
joint exercises with the Australians.

'Lying
is second nature to him', says Tony Schwartz, who wrote 'The Art of the
Deal', the first and most famous of the Trump books. Concerned enough
about a Trump presidency, no matter how remote the possibility as seemed at the time,
he sat down with the New Yorker's Jane Mayer to discuss his fears (July
2015 issue). Schwartz's final takeaway is of a pathological liar and
sociopath.

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Too bad Trump voters don't
read 'The New Yorker' -- Trump of course doesn't read at all; in fact
the old joke applies: he has written more books than he has read. Those
voters and the rest of the world are now rediscovering this
smooth-talking nutcase representing a sort of apogee of our celebrity
culture. With him on one side and North Korea's Kim Jong-un on the
other, there is serious cause for alarm.

As far as the options for dealing with North Korea, they have not changed: Try to cut a deal; impose sanctions, actually
ratchet them up as the country is already under sanctions to no effect;
lastly, use military force. None of them survive closer scrutiny.

Deal?
What deal when the North Koreans have witnessed what happened to Libya
that voluntarily gave up its quest for nuclear weapons.

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Sanctions?
They have withstood them comfortably. China, their lifeline is never
going to let a North Korea be mangled, dismantled, or absorbed by the
South with the U.S. military on its doorstep.

Military
force? Take a look at the map. Seoul is in range of North Korean
guns. Even without nuclear weapons an analysis during the Clinton era
estimated one million South Korean casualties. South Korea will be the
first to object.

Other than bluff and
bluster with ships traveling in the opposite direction, Trump has no
realistic choice. There is a very good reason, Mr. President, why so
many of your predecessors have chosen to kick the can down the road,
relying on China to be a moderating influence -- something it appears to
be less and less able to do with the mercurial Kim Jong-un. The only deal he will accept will keep him nuclear-armed.

If
the president's behavior appears abnormal, it has been noted also by
psychiatrists. At a conference at the Yale School of Medicine this
week, a panel found Mr. Trump to be "paranoid, delusional and grandiose
thinking". Meanwhile an open letter asking for Trump to be removed from
office because his mental state "makes him incapable of serving safely
as president" has been signed by over 41,000 mental-health
professionals.

When Plutarch called the demos an
ignorant rabble not to be trusted two millennia ago, he was not far
off. What has happened also questions the current U.S. primary system
for selecting presidential candidates as opposed to the 'smoke-filled
rooms' of the past, with party bigwigs negotiating and trading votes
they could muster for their choices. They could have picked a crooked
Hillary but never a delusional paranoid.

Arshad M Khan is a former Professor. Educated at King's College London, Oklahoma State University and the University of Chicago, he has a multidisciplinary background that has frequently informed his research. He was elected a Fellow of the (more...)

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